Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept is directed to a method, apparatus, and computer readable storage medium directed to a slot machine game with a variable level of player suspense.
Description of the Related Art
Slot machine games are a very popular form of casino gaming. A typical electromechanical slot machine game displays wagering outcomes by spinning and then stopping (or “resolving”), three physical reels containing images (symbols) alternated with blanks. Specifically, after a player initiates gameplay, the software operating the machine uses a pseudo-random number generator to determine the final positions of the three reels, then sets the reels spinning. After a short period of time, the reels are stopped in their determined positions. The reels are resolved, one at a time, from left-to-right. The relationship of the symbols on the reels to a payline determines whether an outcome is a winner or loser.
Most winning outcomes require three matching symbols on the payline. Conversely, most losing outcomes contain one or more blanks, or two or more unlike symbols. Due to the physical shape of a slot reel and the viewing window through which it is seen, it is possible to see at least one symbol above and below the payline. A “near miss” on a slot machine is a losing outcome which appears to have nearly been a winner. A near miss may occur by achieving two like symbols and a third unmatched symbol, or may occur by virtue of the position of the winning symbols being just above or just below the payline. For example, the outcome 7-7-7 (on reels 1 (leftmost), 2 (center), and 3 (rightmost), respectively) may be a winner on a slot machine game, and the outcome 7-7-blank may be a loser. FIG. 2 shows the outcome 7-blank-7: the first and third 7 symbols 115 and 125 on the left and right reels 110 and 130 both intersect the payline 105; however, the second seven symbol 135 on the center reel 120 is above payline 105. Thus, FIG. 2 shows a near miss outcome. Typically, a near miss is a losing outcome (though it may be a smaller winning outcome than was otherwise expected).
The virtual reel technology described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,419 to Telnaes teaches how to create “weighted” reels, where the symbols on the reels do not appear with equal probability. With weighted reels, it becomes possible to increase the chance of a near miss by increasing the frequency of the blank space immediately above or below a symbol. For example, the probability of the outcome depicted in FIG. 2 herein may be increased by increasing the number of virtual blanks above or below the 7 symbol 135 on the center reel 130. The “symbol ratio” is the ratio of the virtual weight of a blank space to an adjacent symbol. A high symbol ratio will create more near misses. The technique of more heavily weighting the blanks above and below a valuable symbol is also known as “clustering”.
Near misses have the impact of creating excitement and suspense for slot players as they may perceive that a win almost happened. However, an excess of near misses may lead players to believe the game is rigged or malfunctioning. To prevent this, some regulated gambling jurisdictions require that the symbol ratio for jackpot symbols must not exceed a certain limit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,764 to Inoue describes a multi-line video slot machine game using a grid of 3×3 individual reels (reels that show one symbol each). Inoue teaches that the “hope of winning”, or suspense of a slot game with multiple intersecting paylines may be increased by resolving the reel with the greatest number of intersecting lines last. In the 3×3 game of Inoue, the second resolution order of FIG. 10 teaches that the middle reel should be resolved last, as it intersects four paylines. In contrast, the traditional, “in-order” resolution order of Inoue's FIG. 9 last resolves a symbol which only intersects three paylines. While Inoue's “resolve the middle reel last” approach may increase the suspense for a 3×3 grid slot machine, in a standard 3-reel slot game, all three reels intersect the same payline(s). Therefore, resolving the middle (center) reel last would not have Inoue's desired effect, and indeed may actually decrease the suspense of a typical slot machine game since most games have more virtual blank spaces on the rightmost reel than the center. Further, the visibility of symbols above and below the payline in a standard slot machine is not present in the game of Inoue, and Inoue does not address the presence of symbols outside his “observation windows”. Therefore, what is needed is a better way to increase the suspense of a standard slot machine game.
At the same time, psychological studies on slot machine players and near misses have shown near misses to be very compelling and exciting, much more so than other losing outcomes that are not near misses. This fact led Universal Distributing, in the 1980s, to design a series of slot machine games which detected if a losing outcome would occur, and if so, would replace that losing outcome with a near miss losing outcome. This practice was known as near miss programming. Mathematically, the results were identical since both outcomes were losing outcomes. However, the practice of near miss programming, that is, substituting one losing outcome with another when that other outcome was not actually selected by the random number generator, was ruled deceptive and made illegal during a series of Nevada Gaming Commission hearings in 1988. Those hearings led to the amendment of Nevada Gaming Commission Regulation 14.040, which now states: “All gaming devices submitted for approval: (3) Must display an accurate representation of the game outcome. After selection of the game outcome, the gaming device must not make a variable secondary decision which affects the result shown to the player.”
Notwithstanding this regulation, there is still some level of suspicion about the fairness of near misses even when not specifically programmed; that is, when achieved due to clustering techniques on weighted virtual reels. It may be that regulators will weigh future evidence and rule against the practice of virtual reels and clustering. For example, Dr. Kevin A. Harrigan has published several papers in mental health journals that indicate the virtual reel technology and near misses may lead to “classical and operant conditioning, the frustration effect, the perception of early wins, illusion of control, biased evaluation of outcomes, entrapment, and irrational thinking.” (Harrigan, Kevin A. (2007). Slot Machines: Pursuing Responsible Gaming Practices for Virtual Reels and Near Misses. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, DOI 10.1007/s11469-007-9139-8). It is possible that such additional studies on near misses may lead regulators to want to decrease near misses by eliminating the practice of virtual reels, or decrease them even further beyond what is possible with uniformly-weighted reels. Therefore, what is also needed is a way to decrease the suspense of a standard slot machine game.
In addition, what is also needed is a new variation of slot machine game which players should find more exciting and which should generate additional action for the casino.